Promoting Malaria Prevention and Treatment (ProMPT Ghana), an agency engaged in the fight against malaria would this year distribute over 12million Long Lasting Insecticide Nets (LLINs) to every Ghanaian living everywhere in the country.
This effort by ProMPT Ghana was aimed at complementing government’s quest to completely eliminate malaria by the year 2015 as being demanded by the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs 4, 5 and 6).
Goals 4, 5, and 6 talks about drastic reduction of child mortality, improved maternal health and combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases, respectively by 2015. Children and pregnant women are most the vulnerable when attacked by malaria, thus everything was being done to ensure that the number of children and pregnant women who die as a result of malaria was prevented.
Maurice Oquaye, Programmes Coordinator of ProMPT Ghana, disclosed this to journalists and other media practitioners at a workshop on malaria reporting in the Northern Regional capital, Tamale. The one day workshop was organized by ProMPT Ghana in collaboration with National Malaria Control Programme, USAID and other partners, with aim of updating the knowledge of over twenty participants drawn from the electronic and print media on effective reportage on malaria.
According to him, if the current population figures of 24 million plus were anything to go by, then two persons in every household were supposed to get one free LLIN which will protect them from mosquito bites in the night or during bed time. Adding, “This strategy is also aimed at eliminating malaria from Ghana by the year 2015”.
Mr. Oquaye also appealed to journalists to educate the public through their reportage to adopt the use of Artemisinin-based Combination Therapies (ACTs) and Long Lasting Insecticide Nets (LLINs) for the treatment and prevention of malaria, which according to World Health Organization (W.H.O) had proven to be very effective.
ACTs are antimalarial drugs which include Artesunate-Amodiaquine (AA), Artemether-Lumefantrine (AL) and Dihydroartemisinin-Piperaquine (DP), and according to health experts are very efficacious in the treatment of malaria as compared to other drugs or therapies in the system.
The Ghana Health Service (GHS) and its partners have therefore, encouraged the Ghanaian populace to adopt the use of ACTs for the treatment of malaria and discard the negative notions or myths associated with the use of the drugs.
According to Mr. Oquaye, apart from the fact that ACTs and LLINs can treat and prevent malaria well, the W.H.O has also heavily subsidized the cost of producing ACTs by the manufacturers; hence the drugs were now very affordable and available for purchase by the public when they fall sick.
He said, the heavily subsidized ACTs have green leaflet logos on their packs or boxes and available in almost every pharmaceutical shop across the country which cost between GH¢1.50pesewas and GH¢2.00. “The public should always look-out for the green leaflet logo on the pack or box when buying the drug and if anyone or chemist shop tries to sell it more than Two Ghana Cedis which is the maximum, don't buy it. Also, report the particular chemist shop to the police or the appropriate quarters for action to be taken,” Mr. Oquaye warned.
Meanwhile, statistics available indicate that malaria was the number one cause of morbidity, accounting for about 32.5 per cent of all outpatient illnesses, 35.9 per cent of all admissions and 30.3 percent of all deaths in children aged less than five years.
Also, between 3.1 and 3.5 million cases of clinical malaria were reported in government health institutions each year of which 900,000 cases were of children under five years. Fever, headache, chills and vomiting are some of the common symptoms of malaria and the public are advised to access prompt medical attention when they begin to experience such symptoms.
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